GRANTHAM, Pa. --- Elizabethtown College fell 70-59 to defending Commonwealth Conference champion Messiah College on the road in the penultimate game of the Blue Jays’ season Thursday night. The game was the make-up of the snowed-out contest originally scheduled for Tuesday. The Blue Jays drop to 8-15 overall and 3-10 in the conference with the loss, while Messiah improves to 18-5 overall and 12-1 in Commonwealth with the win.

Michael Schatzmann '08.

Michael Schatzmann (Paradise, PA/Pequea Valley) led Elizabethtown in scoring with 21 points, and he went 15-for-15 from the free throw line. Through the beginning of the week, only four men’s basketball players in NCAA Division III had single-game free throw shooting performances of 15-for-15 or better over the course of the 2006-07 season. Luke Ledyard (Frederick, MD/Gov. Thomas Johnson) added 10 points for Elizabethtown as he shot 5-for-10 from the field, and Chad Piersol (Elverson, PA/Owen J. Roberts) also scored 10 points. No Elizabethtown player pulled down more than three rebounds over the course of the game, as Messiah out-rebounded the Blue Jays 31-22.

Matt Henninger led Messiah in scoring with 17 points, and Jared Yoder added 16 points and five assists. Jonathan Boyd added 14 points from off the bench for Messiah.

Elizabethtown will return to action in its final game of the season Saturday, February 17, when the Blue Jays host Moravian College in a 1:00 p.m. Commonwealth Conference game.